Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the allocation for the railways for the Northeast has increased to Rs 10,200 crore under the Modi government while it was pegged at Rs 2000 crore before 2014. The increased amount will help expedite projects. He said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi doubled it, tripled it and made it five times that has led it to Rs 10,200 crore,” reported PTI.
All states which have gone through electrification of routes, will have Vande Bharat trains, said Vaishnaw while talking to reporters at the Guwahati railway station ahead of the inauguration of the semi-high speed Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express, reported PTI
The Vande Bharat, connecting Guwahati in Assam with New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, will save around an hour of journey time vis-a-vis current fastest trains connecting the two places. According to a statement released by the PMO, the current fastest trains take around six-and-a-half hours while the Vande Bharat will cover the journey in five-and-a-half hours.
Ahead of the train’s inauguration by the Prime Minister, the minister said, “The mindset towards the Northeast region has changed since the Modi government came into power. Look East has been transformed into Act East,” and added that whatever good things used to happen 15 years ago used to go to big cities that caused their late arrival in the Northeast region.
The indigenous Vande Bharat trains are being manufactured at the ICF in Chennai. The Vande Bharat trains are being prepped to replace Shatabdis, Rajdhanis and local trains,
During the launch of the Dehradun-Delhi Vande Bharat Express on May 25 Vaishnaw had said: there would be three versions of Vande Bharat trains — Vande Metro, Vande Chair Car, and Vande Sleepers — by next year.